


Uncontrolled

by SailorChibi



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of brainwashing, Angst, Angst and Fluff, Brainwashing, Crying, Fury is still the head, Hugging, Infinity Stones, Loki (Marvel) Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, Mentions of Non-Consensual Body Modification, Mind Control, Not Natasha Romanov Friendly, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, PTSD, Platonic sharing of a bed, Post-Avengers (2012), Protective Clint Barton, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Phil Coulson, Protective Thor (Marvel), SHIELD still exists, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, aftermath of mind control, all the feels, also phil coulson friendly, because thanos is a creeper like that, bringing back those 2012 elements I liked, but YES clint barton friendly, clint is on team iron man in this one, except no team harmony, ignores much of what else happened in the movies, soul bonds, steve is still a dick, tony stark is no longer human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26291767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: Iron Man fell under Thanos's control during the Battle of New York. A decade later, both Tony and Loki are simultaneously freed from mind control. And now.... now what?
Relationships: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson, Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 161
Kudos: 1030





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Back with another frostiron story, this one going all the way back to 2012 and heading in a different direction. I love it.

It hurt.

That was Tony's first conscious thought in a decade.

He lay still for a moment, breathing shallowly, before it occurred to him that he could _move_. When he twitched his fingers, his hand actually responded - and in doing so, he could feel dirt and metal against his skin. He could _feel_. He could _taste_. He could open his eyes.

So he did.

The sky, or what passed for a sky, was so dark that at first glance it appeared black. There wasn't much light, but he could see no problem. Tony sat up slowly and looked around. His memory of the past ten years was mostly intact, but the last few minutes were a blank. What had happened? He thought about it for a few seconds and remembered fighting, and winning, and there was just pain. 

But that wasn't unusual. Since the day that he fallen under Thanos's control during the Battle of New York, Tony's life had been nothing but pain. Physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. You name it and Thanos was good at causing it.

He remained where he was for a moment longer, trying to regain his bearings. Obviously, something had happened. Tony's body was his own again for the first time in a decade. He was no longer trapped within the confines of his own mind, seeing what was happening but helpless to stop it. He couldn't imagine that Thanos would have allowed that to happen. Did that mean one of the Infinity Stones had been destroyed? If so, it had to have been the Mind Stone. That was what had allowed to Thanos to control him for so long... him and -

A familiar tingle ran across the back of Tony's neck right before a ball of green light appeared. It rapidly solidified into a man.

At first, Tony tensed.

He had fought beside this man for ten years.

They were _linked_. Irrevocably so.

But he would fight if he had to. He was never going back to Thanos, and he would never allow anything to control his mind again. His hands trembled as he pushed himself to his feet, muscles screaming at the movement. He had no weapons, and the Iron Man suit was long since lost to the ages, but his fists alone would do if necessary.

"Stark," Loki breathed as he fully materialized. His eyes were green.

Green.

Tony could have cried with relief.

"You're free too," he said hoarsely, knowing that it was the truth. 

Loki nodded faintly. The expression on his face could only be described as 'shell-shocked', and no wonder. He had been under Thanos's control even longer than Tony had.

Tony wanted - he wanted _so many_ things that he had no idea how to vocalize when the very act of taking a step was so foreign that it felt like he was learning to walk again. He wanted to kill Thanos; he wanted to wipe the look of fearful exhaustion from Loki's face; he wanted to forget all the things he’d watched his body do while he was trapped in his mind; he wanted to erase the last ten years. 

With the Time Stone, he could do all that and more.

And yet, Tony never wanted to be touched by another one of those damn stones. 

He stumbled forward, moving awkwardly until he and Loki were mere inches apart. What existed between them had been forced by the stones, and yet that made it no less real. Being beside Loki, he realized very quickly, was comfortable. Easy. His body relaxed into Loki's space like they were meant to be together. Because they were. They hadn't been apart for more than a few minutes for years. That was how Thanos wanted it. 

How frustrating it was to realize that this was something that was going to keep happening even now that they were outside of Thanos's control. He told himself that was the reason for the hot tears rolling down his cheeks.

Here's how it began.

On that day, ten years ago, Iron Man suited up alongside the rest of the Avengers to help protect the Earth, specifically New York, from the Chitauri. Led by Loki, the army was a force to be reckoned with. Things had not gone smoothly, but they were all united in their determination to protect Earth – so in spite of their awkward, fumbling attempts at being a team, the Avengers were nothing to laugh at. 

Slowly but surely, the six of them working together began to change the tide of the battle. That was, until Iron Man made a fatal mistake. Noticing that his tower was being used as a source of power for Loki, and needing a replacement armor considering the terrible shape his current one had been in, he’d made his way back to the tower and removed the armor. Then, while the replacement was still being prepared, cocky and arrogant Tony Stark had strutted into _his_ tower and confronted Loki.

None of them, aside from Thor, had known anything about Loki, and so Tony hadn't realized that something in those precious few moments that something was wrong. Thor's attitude had seemed to indicate that Loki's behavior wasn't outside the norm for him, so Tony hadn't really thought anything about being in the same room with Loki. Not when JARVIS was there, and another suit so close by. 

That was his first mistake.

His second mistake was when Loki got close, too close, and tapped that damnable scepter against the arc reactor. Tony remembered tensing, waiting for the feeling of everything to fade away, but it didn't come. The look of astonishment on Loki's face had been amusing for all of two seconds before Loki grabbed him around the throat and shoved the scepter into his face. Tony found out he had been wrong, then. It wasn't like a feeling of everything fading away at all. It was more like the feeling of your brain being shoved into a tiny box, able to see everything that your body was doing but helpless to stop it.

It was worse. _So much worse_. 

None of the Avengers had realized what happened. All they saw was Iron Man suddenly fighting with the Chitauri, until Thanos gave the order for them to withdraw. The Chitauri had gone, and Loki and Iron Man had gone with them.

Thanos had been pleased.

Tony shuddered when he remembered _just how_ pleased.

And then he couldn't stop shivering as more and more memories flashed through his head: the hot, filthy touch of the Reality Stone. The blood on his hands from all the people he had killed. The angry, blank look in Nebula's eyes whenever Loki-and-Tony - because in the end, that's what they were to Thanos, not two warriors but a set - did better than she did. The sickly-sweet smell of the ship, particularly the room where Thanos liked to have private conversations.

Not that anything was private between him and Loki now.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Tony said raggedly, but of course when he bent double and gagged, nothing came up. He couldn't remember when his last meal was. He didn't need to eat anymore.

"We need to leave," Loki said, one hand landing on Tony's lower back. It was a casual, almost possessive move, like something they had done many times before.

Because they had.

It was just never something _they_ had done.

But Tony realized he didn't mind the contact.

Exactly as he thought before, Loki's touch was even more familiar than Loki's presence. Tony needed familiarity right now, because if he focused too much on what had happened then he was going to spin completely out of control. He didn't care if what was between them was a by-product of Thanos and the stones. It was solid and as real as anything else at the moment. He straightened up and turned into Loki, nose to nose, so close he could see each individual eyelash of Loki's right eye.

"Anywhere," he whispered, almost begging. "Loki, get us out of here. Somewhere _he_ won't find us."

Loki’s face tightened, his mouth becoming a thin line. What he was thinking was as obvious as though he had spoken: there weren’t many places in the universe where you could hide from the Titan.

Thanos was everywhere.

Still, Loki’s free hand came down and gripped Tony’s opposite shoulder and then the feeling of Loki’s magic was flowing through him. It felt a little bit different, Tony realized: it was warmer now. He shuddered again as he realized that Loki’s magic, like everything else, must have been tainted. Now that it wasn’t, now that Loki was free, it was like a warm spring rain. Tony wanted to roll around in that feeling.

Instead the world blipped out around them and then suddenly was back, almost too fast for Tony’s eyes to accept. The difference in gravity made his knees go weak, and he would have fallen except for Loki’s too-tight grip on his upper arm.

Tony looked around. “Where are we?” He had seen many planets in the past ten years, but this one – with a dappled white sky and purple vegetation – didn’t look familiar. He had the strange, distant thought that Clint Barton would’ve loved the color scheme.

“I don’t know,” Loki admitted. “I just wanted to get away.”

That was fair. Tony took a deep breath, tasting metal. At least he had one thing to “thank” Thanos for, he reflected bitterly. Ever since Thanos had modified Tony’s body with the Reality Stone, he no longer needed to worry about oxygen. Most places in the galaxy weren’t suitable for humans, but that wasn’t a concern that Tony needed to have anymore. He wasn’t even sure he _was_ human now.

“We should take this off,” he said quietly, reaching out to touch Loki – and then pausing, thinking better of it. He and Loki wore similar armor that marked them as part of the Titan’s army. It was magically reinforced and impossibly strong, and it was probably stupid to take it off and expose themselves to danger on a foreign planet, but Tony didn’t care. He wanted it off _now_.

Loki nodded, looking as revolted as Tony felt, and they divested themselves of the armor quickly. Underneath, Tony was wearing a pair of loose black pants and a plain black shirt. Loki’s clothing was of a similar make, except his were green. Neither of them were wearing blue or yellow, a fact which Tony was rather appreciative of right now.

“We may not be able to stay here long,” Loki warned him. “I don’t know where we are. This might be a planet that is supportive of Thanos.” His voice was rough and husky from disuse: he hadn’t spoken much under Thanos’s control. Neither of them had.

“That’s okay. I don’t think we should engage with the locals anyway,” Tony said. As far as he was concerned, they had more to worry about from planets that Thanos had already attacked. If this planet was one of them, there was a chance he and Loki might be recognized as generals, and if so then any denizens of their planet would _not_ be welcoming.

Besides, they didn’t need to. Tony didn’t want anything from anyone at this point. He just wanted to rest.

So he sat down right there on the strange, lavender-colored soil, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. He didn’t need to sleep much anymore, but he hadn’t properly rested in a long time. 

Loki sat down across from him.

For a while, they were quiet.

Eventually Tony lay back so that he could look up at the sky. There were no clouds. Just an endless expanse of white as far as the eye could see. It might eventually fade to a different color as night fell, or it might not. Maybe it stayed white forever. 

When was the last time he’d taken the chance to look up at the Earth’s sky, so blue and full of fluffy white clouds?

He couldn’t remember.

He couldn’t bring to mind Pepper’s sweet smile or Rhodey’s laughter or JARVIS’s snarky voice.

All he could remember was blood and pain and death.

Eventually, Tony became aware that he was crying again.

He reached for Loki’s hand unthinkingly and was met halfway.

When Tony looked over, Loki was crying too.


	2. Chapter 2

When Clint opened his eyes, it was to an empty bed and the persistent image of _blue_.

He shuddered and pulled the covers more firmly against his chest, looking around the bedroom. They had decorated it in shades of cream and red, with the occasional hint of brown trim. All warm colors. Definitely no blue, or even a hint of any cooler colors. Even now, three years after the Battle of New York, the sight of too much blue could send Clint into a panic attack. Fresh out of a nightmare, even a bit of blue was too much.

“Are you well, Agent Barton?”

Clint breathed a bit more easily at the familiar sound of JARVIS’s voice. If JARVIS was speaking that calmly, then it meant things were okay. It might have taken some time to get used to relying that heavily on an A.I., but now he treasured JARVIS almost as much as he did his beloved bow. 

“I’ve been better,” he admitted at last, not liking how shaky his voice was. 

“Shall I contact Agent Coulson?” JARVIS asked.

“What’s he doing?” Clint asked.

“Agent Coulson has just left a meeting with Director Fury and was heading back to his office. He is currently muttering under his breath about paperwork.”

A small smile quirked Clint’s lips. “That’s okay. Maybe I’ll go to him instead.” He pushed the covers back, shivering in spite of the fact that JARVIS always kept the temperature in the bedroom to a balmy 77 degrees. Whenever he had a nightmare about that time, he found it hard to stay warm.

So first he headed into their attached bathroom, stripping off his sweat-stained pajamas and jumping into the shower. JARVIS already had it turned on and heated to Clint’s favored temperature – he might just love that A.I. more than he loved Coulson, honestly. He spent several minutes just basking in the hot water, doing his best not to think about a cold blue light that seemed to freeze from the inside out with middling success.

When he finally climbed out, his fingers were wrinkled. Clint dried himself off quickly, pulled on a pair of jeans and one of Coulson’s sweaters, and shoved his feet into slippers before padding out of the bedroom. He made his way up to the floor where Coulson’s office was housed. The door was open, so Clint didn’t hesitate to slip into the office to see what was going on.

Coulson was on the phone. When he saw Clint, he held up a finger.

Clint nodded at him and crossed over to the windows. The view from Stark Tower was, as always, absolutely incredible. It was like getting a bird’s eye view all the time. Clint loved it. Sometimes, when he was really upset and Coulson wasn’t around, he went up to the roof and spent hours alternating between watching the city and the sky. Watching a flock of seagulls for a few minutes helped to settle him further, so that by the time Coulson hung up he didn’t feel like he was going to fly into a panic attack.

Still, the hug that Coulson got up to offer was gratefully accepted. Clint snuggled into his embrace, angling himself so that he could get an ear against Coulson’s chest. The sound of Coulson’s heartbeat was always comforting even when he hadn’t just had a nightmare. They had come very close to losing Coulson.

“Hey, I’m still here,” Coulson said.

“I swear you can read minds,” Clint said.

Coulson snorted. “No, I just know you too well.” He ran a hand through Clint’s still-damp hair. “Another nightmare? You could’ve asked JARVIS to get me.”

“I was okay,” Clint said.

“They’ve been happening more often lately. Are you sure you don’t need to talk to someone?” Coulson asked. He sounded worried, which made Clint’s heart flutter. He liked knowing that Coulson cared enough to be concerned, even as he shook his head.

“No. I’m fine, really.” He pulled back from the hug, drumming up a smile. Coulson watched him with a shrewd gaze, probably seeing right through that smile, but he was gracious enough not to call Clint on it. Well, that and the phone rang again, which prompted a sigh from Coulson as he moved back to answer it and left Clint staring out the windows again.

Three years ago, following Iron Man’s disappearance during the Battle of New York, everything had been a real mess for about a year. A group called The Masters of the Mystic Arts had stepped in at the last moment to save New York from the missile, and to help deal with the last of the Chitauri. But they had quietly withdrawn immediately after, leaving SHIELD to clean up the mess.

 _Clint_ had been a real mess following all that, so he hadn’t been much help during that time at all. He hadn’t started pulling himself together until Fury admitted that Coulson was alive – but that was only after Clint’s falling out with Natasha, who had then ditched him entirely to run off with Captain America in search of the Winter Soldier. 

Natasha and Steve both thought that Iron Man had willingly gone with the Chitauri. Clint knew better. None of them knew exactly what had happened up during the time that Iron Man had gone to confront Loki. JARVIS’s recording capabilities had been scrambled, leaving the footage largely useless. But Clint knew what it was like to fall under the control of that scepter. You didn’t get to make choice. You didn’t get to decide anything. You just obeyed.

And he knew, deep in his heart, that Tony Stark had fallen prey to that scepter.

Fury and Coulson shared his belief, as did Pepper Potts and James Rhodes. Natasha and Steve had always been more skeptical. Steve didn’t think much of Stark, whereas Natasha was openly critical of him and repeatedly pointed to her dossier on Stark as proof that Stark might have thought the Chitauri were the winning side. It had caused a lot of fights between her and Clint before Natasha finally got fed up and left.

Now, so far as Clint knew, she and Steve were still chasing the elusive Winter Soldier around. About a year and a half ago, the two of them had dumped all of SHIELD’s files onto the internet in the process – Clint still didn’t know the full story of _why_ , but it had caused absolute chaos. Thousands of compromised SHIELD agents had died in the fall out. To this day, Clint didn’t know what the hell had been going through Natasha’s head when she’d done that. It was like she’d forgotten that actions had consequences.

Sure, SHIELD had been torn apart and Hydra successfully removed. What little remained of SHIELD had been left floundering until Pepper Potts stepped in; she’d quickly and quietly turned the upper floors of Stark Tower into a mini-SHIELD central. Coulson, Fury, Hill, and Clint, along with several other trustworthy and vetted agents, had been relocated, and now SHIELD was operating again.

But at what cost? It made Clint feel sick to think about all the innocent people who had died because of that. He really wanted to know what Natasha had been thinking, but he had a sneaking suspicion that she hadn’t been thinking at all. Natasha had a hard time understand the value of human life. She hadn’t understood at all why Clint had been so traumatized after being brainwashed. To her, the Red Room had done so much worse that it shouldn’t have been a big deal.

And when it came to Steve, well… Clint hadn’t seen Steve in years, and he honestly barely knew the man, but all the reports he had read through indicated that Steve had a full blown obsession with the Winter Soldier, a.k.a. Bucky Barnes. All attempts at reigning Steve in had failed thus far. He didn’t want to hear that Barnes would be a different person now, didn’t want to hear that Barnes wanted nothing to do with him, didn’t want to hear that there were more important things than Barnes at stake. 

As far as SHIELD was concerned at this point, both Natasha Romanov and Steve Rogers were lost causes. It bothered Coulson a lot, Clint knew. The dream of the Avengers had gone up in smoke before it even began.

He leaned against the window, watching Coulson in the reflection of the glass. Today, Coulson looked tired. There were new creases in the corners of his eyes. He had probably been up for hours already, even though it was just past 8am. He probably hadn’t even eaten yet. Clint bided his time until the phone call was over, then turned around and walked over to the desk.

“Want to come have breakfast with me?” he asked.

Coulson sighed. “I should say no. I have a ton of crap to get through.”

“Crap can wait,” Clint said firmly. “What’s going on, anyway?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Coulson said with another, even heavier sigh. “I had hoped that Thor would have made some headway by now, but no such luck.”

Clint pursed his lips to hold in a sigh of his own. Thor was convinced that both Iron Man and Loki could be saved from their fates and had been relentlessly searching the galaxy for both of them for the better part of three years now. Occasionally he’d stop by Earth to see Jane, and Jane would pass on a message to SHIELD through Bruce Banner. Most commonly, those messages were all the same.

“Let’s go have breakfast,” he said, choosing not to get into it now. They’d researched all possible avenues open to them, but as long as they were stuck on Earth, they weren’t going to be helpful in the search. Besides, even if Loki and Iron Man could be found, Clint wasn’t sure what SHIELD would do. Smack them both in the head however many times it took to save them? They’d both been under control for _years_ now…

He just barely held in a shudder. He’d only been brainwashed for about thirty hours, give or take. He couldn’t imagine how traumatizing it would be to be locked up in your brain for three years. Even if Stark and Lok could be saved, it was hard to know what kind of shape the two of them would be in. 

“Sure,” Coulson said, standing up. His clothing was loose on him, Clint noticed critically. He thought back to earlier when they’d hugged and realized that his arms had fit around Coulson a little too easily. This was going to have to be more than just a coffee breakfast.

He linked arms with Coulson, and they left together, heading for the kitchen. Though Pepper had installed a cafeteria for them on one of the lower floors, there was also a small kitchen that was used primarily by Clint, Coulson, Hill, Fury, and a few other high-level SHIELD executives. Unsurprisingly, it was empty. Clint pushed Coulson down into a chair and went to examine the contents of the fridge.

“What do you feel like? Oatmeal? Cereal? Toast?” Clint asked. The fridge was crammed full of food – thank you JARVIS. 

“I’m good with just cereal,” said Coulson.

“Cereal… and toast,” Clint muttered, grabbing jam. He probably wouldn’t be able to pry Coulson away from his desk at lunch time, so a heavier breakfast was a good idea.

“I’ll get the bowls.” Coulson stood up, wincing slightly. One of his hands touched his chest absently, specifically the spot where the scepter had nearly killed him. Clint watched him closely out of the corner of his eye. Though Coulson had miraculously survived, the scar left behind still bothered him sometimes when he was tired or if it was cold outside.

They all had their scars now.

“Agent Barton,” JARVIS said.

“Yeah?” Clint said absently, wondering if he should offer to grab Coulson’s heating pad. Coulson would probably turn it down, but the heat always helped.

“Someone has just entered the Malibu house.”

Clint turned around and so did Coulson. They looked at each other in surprise, which quickly turned grim. Last he’d heard from Pepper, she had sealed up the remains of the Malibu house. It had been destroyed during the whole debacle with the Mandarin, and Pepper had confessed late one night, when she and Clint had had a little too much wine, that she didn’t feel right rebuilding it without Tony.

“Who is it?” Coulson said. It was hard to know what he was thinking, but Clint’s head had gone straight to Natasha and Steve. But surely not even those two would be dumb enough to trespass on S.I. property? Pepper had made her feelings about them pretty clear.

“It’s Sir,” Jarvis said. “Sir and Loki.”

Clint froze.

“What?” Coulson breathed.

“Are they brainwashed?” Clint heard himself say, like the words were coming from a distance.

“Not as far as I can tell. Sir knew all the right passwords so was allowed into the system,” said JARVIS. “I’m running a scan on them right now.”

Clint and Coulson looked at each other again. Then, as one, they made a dash for the door, breakfast forgotten.


	3. Chapter 3

Loki wasn’t familiar with Earth, and after so long away Tony could only be so precise about location. But that was fine. Thanos might think they would head for Earth, but Tony suspected – hoped – that the mad Titan wouldn’t chase them there immediately. Loki didn’t want to return to Asgard, and Earth was the only place Tony was familiar with. Plus, they needed food and rest and resources. 

So Earth it was.

When they were ready, Tony pressed himself in close to Loki, tucking himself beneath Loki’s arm, and it was so damn _familiar_ that he at once hated it and sought comfort in it. Loki’s arms were strong and protective around him, clutching Tony against him as magic rose and fell around them like the currents of water. The purple vegetation, and the armor that had once marked them as Thanos’s soldiers, was swiftly left behind.

They ended up a few hundred miles outside of Malibu. It wasn’t New York, but Tony wasn’t complaining. Loki rested for a little while to restore his magic, while Tony stared up at the sky he had been missing so dearly. It was cloudy and grey today instead of blue, but he found he didn’t mind. There was no grass, but there was the soft sand from the beach and the waves washing in to kiss his bare toes. He didn’t cry again, but it was a near thing.

“They may not want us here,” Loki said suddenly. He was standing beside Tony, so close within Tony’s space that their sides were pressed together. Tony gave up on minding. Considering everything else they had to worry about, a lack of personal space between him and Loki was extremely low on his list of priorities.

“I know,” Tony said heavily, bowing his head. Who knew what everyone on Earth had been left thinking when Iron Man suddenly disappeared? It had been _ten years_. They probably thought that he was dead at best. He didn’t even know if the tower in New York was still his. Was it even still called Stark Industries, or had Pepper decided to sell the company in Tony’s absence?

“What do you want to do?” Loki asked. It was rare for him to defer to Tony. Whenever Thanos gave an order to be carried out, they would decide on a plan of action together. But it was usually Loki who made the final decision. That he was doing so now meant he was truly feeling out of his depths.

Which made sense. Loki’s only encounter with Earth was hardly a shining one.

“We’ll have to head for my house. We need food and rest,” Tony said. “And JARVIS.” His chest ached with how much he wanted to hear his A.I.’s voice again. Surely Pepper or Rhodey would have taken care of JARVIS and the ‘bots, right?

“And then?” Loki said.

“And then…” Tony sighed, feeling heavy – gravity was a bitch to get used to - and so he laid his head on Loki’s shoulder. “Then I guess we’ll have to figure out if there’s anyone who can help us be ready when Thanos comes.”

Loki sucked in a sharp breath at the name but said nothing, as Tony had known he would. There was really nothing to be said. They both feared falling back under Thanos’s control, especially since they didn’t know how they’d been freed in the first place. Tony theorized that the Mind Stone had been destroyed somehow, but Thanos was nothing if not relentless when there was something he really wanted – and he would not be happy that his two most prized generals had slipped out of his grasp.

When Loki was ready, he gathered Tony into his arms again and teleported them both again. This time, they landed smack dab in the middle of Tony’s living room. They both stood there for a moment, frozen with surprise, before Tony broke out of the embrace. He took a cautious step forward, eyes darting around. Everything looked quiet and, dare he say it, dusty. All the furniture was covered with blankets. The paintings were gone from the walls. 

“Does no one live here?” Loki said, looking around.

“Uh – I did, once. I’m guessing this means it’s still mine, just in storage?” Tony said hesitantly. Either that, or whoever had bought it didn’t live here on a regular basis. 

"Identify yourself."

Tony sagged, relief so potent that Loki had to steady him. His voice wavered. "JARVIS?"

"Identify yourself," JARVIS repeated in a steely tone. It must have taken his sensors a moment to recognize that Tony and Loki were there, considering that they had just appeared out of no where, Tony realized. After ten years, JARVIS was probably badly in need of an update. Tony's technology had always been ahead of the curve; it was something that Tony had once prided himself on. But after that much time, all his tech was going to be outdated. That was a weird thought that he filed away for later.

"It's me, J. Tony," Tony said. He rattled off a complex string of security code that only he and JARVIS would know. There was a telling pause.

"... Sir?" JARVIS said, very hesitantly.

"Yeah," Tony said, smiling slightly and blinking hard to hold back tears. "Go ahead, buddy. Do the full scan and work up." He spread his arms.

Loki startled as the red beam of light swept over them, and Tony laid a reassuring hand on his arm automatically. The light lasted for less than five seconds, but he knew that JARVIS had collected a wealth of information with it. It wouldn't take JARVIS long to parse through the data either. Tony waited patiently, wondering what those scans would show. It was very unlikely that he was fully human anymore, not after Thanos had started messing around with the Reality Stone. But he thought - hoped - that there would be enough of him left to prove to JARVIS that he was who he said he was.

"My scans confirm that you are Tony Stark," JARVIS said at last. "Sir, maybe I be the first to say, welcome home."

Tony closed his eyes, breath catching. "Thanks."

"You appear to have full control of your mind again," said JARVIS.

"I do," Tony said. "Both Loki and I do." He glanced over at Loki, who looked a little tense but wasn't otherwise reacting. He had told Loki a little bit about JARVIS, but sometimes people had a hard time believing Tony until they saw... or rather, until they heard JARVIS for themselves.

"I'm glad," JARVIS said sincerely. "We were all very concerned when you disappeared."

Tony remembered that moment like it was yesterday. JARVIS would have seen, of course. Had he tried to talk to Tony after Tony fell under Thanos's control? Had he called out to Tony, or tried to stop Tony from going?

"Who is we?" Loki asked, perhaps sensing that Tony was momentarily too choked up to speak.

"Primarily Agent Coulson, Agent Barton, Dr. Banner, Thor, Director Fury, a small contingent of SHIELD agents, Dr. Foster, Ms. Lewis and Mr. Selvig, Ms. Potts and Colonel Rhodes -"

Tony's head snapped up. "Pepper and Rhodey?" he croaked out. "They're still alive?"

"Yes Sir," JARVIS confirmed.

"Thank god," Tony breathed. He ran JARVIS's list over in his head again and frowned. "Rogers and Romanov?"

"They were... significantly less concerned," JARVIS said, diplomatic and tactful to the end, and Tony immediately took that to meant that Rogers and Romanov hadn't given a shit about him once he was off planet. Well, he couldn't say that was very surprising. He and Rogers had clashed on the Helicarrier, after all. And Romanov had been pretty upfront about the fact that she didn't think Tony was worth much. Somehow, he didn't think the opinion of either one of them would have changed. He supposed he should take comfort in the fact that at least some things hadn't.

"Do these people know that we were being controlled?" Loki asked tightly, laying his hand over Tony's. "Will they attack again?"

"No. I suspect they will be very pleased to see you," said JARVIS. "Thor will be particularly happy to see you."

Tony looked at Loki just in time to see Loki's eyes widen slightly and his lips part in silence.

He knew Loki well enough to know that Loki was equal parts stunned, touched, and confused.

Much the same as Tony himself was feeling, actually.

He shook his head. "J, I think you need to get us caught up on the last ten years."

JARVIS sounded as puzzled as an A.I. could be when he said, "Ten years? Sir, it has only been three years since the Battle of New York."

"What?" Tony said, blinking.

Beside him, Loki sighed and lifted his free hand to rub his forehead. "I wondered if that was going to happen," he said, resigned. 

"What do you mean?" Tony demanded, turning to him. His brain felt like it was broken. Too much had happened in a short span of time and he didn't know if he could absorb any more shocks.

"The flow of time around each planet is different. What seems like five minutes on one planet could be two weeks on Earth. What is two weeks on Earth could be ten years on yet another planet. There are few planets in the galaxy that align perfectly. You and I have visited many planets." Loki's voice quieted as he reached the end of his explanation, and Tony's stomach flipped.

Death, blood, destruction. So many images flashed through his mind. Images he didn't want to think about. Images he had helped to cause. 

"Right," he said shakily. "Of course. That makes perfect scientific sense." He took a deep breath, helping to settle the sudden feeling of nausea. So it hadn't been ten years after all. Not on Earth. It had only been three years. He didn't know why he hadn't thought about that himself.

"Sir? Are you alright?" JARVIS asked.

"I'm fine. I just think - I should sit," Tony said, looking around. The kitchen table was still there; he didn't care that the chairs were covered in dust. He sank into the nearest one and bent double, staring at the ground. Loki's hand settled onto the back of his neck a few seconds later, cool and grounding.

Tony just sat there for several minutes, trying and failing to fight back the panic. He didn’t know why this had rattled him so much. It was a good thing, right? He hadn’t lost as much time as he’d thought. That meant Pepper and Rhodey and Happy and everyone else were only three years older, so they probably weren’t that different from what he remembered.

But it also meant that _Tony_ would be even more different from what _they_ remembered. It had been ten years for him. Ten years of being locked up in a proverbial cage, helpless to watch as his body performed unspeakable atrocities. Ten years of working for that monster. Ten years of being robbed of those precious three years on Earth.

“Breathe,” Loki said, quietly but firmly.

“I can’t,” Tony whispered. His lungs felt like they were swelling shut. “I just – shit, Loki, I _can’t_. With _any_ of this, I –”

Loki’s hand tightened on his neck, but he said nothing else. Maybe he didn’t know what else to say, or maybe there just wasn’t anything else to say.

Eventually, the panic worked itself through Tony’s system and left him aching from the tension and exhausted. Tony let his shoulders slump, looking down at his hands. He’d clenched them in his lap so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. He had to consciously force himself to relax, and even then, it was a couple of minutes before the circulation started to return to them.

“JARVIS,” he said hoarsely. His voice sounded as rough as though he’d been screaming, though Tony didn’t remember doing that.

“Yes Sir?”

The immediate response helped. Tony sucked in a deep breath, held it, exhaled. Then said, “Tell us everything.”


	4. Chapter 4

Clint's knee jiggled with impatience. It wasn't until Coulson reached over and set a hand on his knee that Clint made himself stop. He shot Coulson an apologetic look, which was met with a warm smile and a gentle, understanding squeeze to his leg. Clint wanted to smile back, but he was too wound up. Instead, he settled for tapping out the rhythm of his favorite song against the bottom of his chair. Coulson gave his knee another squeeze and then stood up, moving to talk to Pepper.

Clint watched them out of the corner of his eye. At one time, he'd been a little jealous of their close friendship. Coulson didn't usually get on well with people, but somehow, he'd clicked effortlessly with Pepper. For a little while there Clint had almost been expecting a break-up. But then he'd realized that the reason why Coulson valued Pepper so much was because she was just a friend. SHIELD agents didn't tend to have many of those. Pepper was in a unique position: she was a civilian, but she'd been close enough to the Avengers through Tony Stark that she knew who Clint and Coulson really were. That was invaluable.

Right now, Pepper looked pretty stressed out. She was pacing the small aircraft, which was unlike her. But Clint couldn't exactly blame her. JARVIS had said that Tony and Loki seemed to be of sound mind, but none of them would believe it until they saw it for themselves. He checked his watch again and breathed out shakily, realizing that they were close to Malibu. That was what you got when you traveled across the country with the best jet that Stark Industries had to offer.

It still seemed to take forever before they had landed, and then they had to get into a car and drive out to the mansion. Clint stared numbly out the window as they grew closer, wondering what kind of shape Tony and Loki would be in. It had been _three_ years. Clint felt like he'd been irrevocably changed after about a day of being brainwashed. He wasn't sure that Pepper or Coulson were ready for this. He wasn't sure that _he_ was ready for this, even though it felt like all of them had been stuck waiting for this moment to happen for ages...

When the driver parked, Pepper leaped out the car. Coulson was quick to jump out too and stop her.

"Let go!" Pepper snapped.

"Pepper, you have to calm down," Coulson said sharply, gripping her shoulders. "You have no idea what happened to Stark while he was gone."

"He's my friend," Pepper said, her eyes too bright. "I don't care what happened."

"I know you don't, but Stark will. He's not going to be the same person that you remember," Coulson said, gentling his tone. "If you go rushing in there and try to hug him, it may not end well. You have to keep your distance and let Stark be the one to approach you. If he doesn't, you'll have to deal with that. Okay?"

Pepper started to cry. "I just want him to be okay."

Coulson nodded, sighing. "We all do. But it's important that we all keep our composure here. We can't overwhelm them."

Clint climbed out of the car; he had nothing to add to that, but he knew that Pepper had no idea just how right Coulson was. He was a totally different person now than he'd been before the Battle of New York. It might have been a short-lived experience, but it had changed him fundamentally. For weeks following the Battle, he hadn't been able to tolerate anyone touching him. Even now, he was only really okay with Coulson. He could tolerate the occasional hug from Pepper or hand-to-shoulder touch from Fury, but that was about it. It was just one more reason why he hadn't been sad to see Natasha leave.

"Okay," Pepper said, taking a deep breath and visibly trying to pull herself together. She carefully wiped her eyes and turned to Clint. "Do I look like a raccoon?"

"Surprisingly, no. Waterproof mascara?" Clint asked.

"Yeah. I figured it was best to be prepared," Pepper said with a shaky smile. "Let's do this, boys."

It had been three years, but Clint was still unprepared for his first sight of Tony Stark.

Somehow, Stark looked _younger_. That should have been impossible, yet here was the evidence staring them right in the face. Tony Stark didn't look a day older than twenty-five at the most. His skin was young and supple, with a lack of laugh lines or wrinkles. His hair was a deep, rich chestnut and lacked the tell-tale hints of grey that had once peppered both his hair and beard. He was wearing a strange suit of some kind, made of a fabric that Clint didn't recognize, but it fit his body very well and showed that time had only helped to develop Stark's muscles.

All in all, in a quick glance, he looked great.

But his eyes...

A chill ran down Clint's spine.

He was pretty sure that Stark's eyes had once been brown.

Now, they looked almost gold.

And they looked _old_. Worn. Exhausted. Scared.

The eyes were the windows to the soul, or so they said. For the first time, Clint believed that.

"Tony?" Pepper whispered.

"Hi Pep," Stark said softly

Clint shivered again. That was Stark's voice alright. 

He tore his eyes away from Stark to take in the other person - man - god? - standing in the kitchen. Loki was so close to Stark that there wasn't room for a piece of paper between them. Unlike Stark, he didn't look that different from the last time Clint had seen him. His dark hair was maybe a little longer, and was gathered at the nape of his neck with a cord, but other than that not much had changed...

Except, again, for his eyes.

Green now, not blue.

It felt cruel to breathe a sigh of relief, yet that was what Clint did.

In the beginning, he had harbored a lot of anger and resentment towards Loki for what he felt was Loki's part in what had happened. When he'd figured out that Loki was most likely brainwashed too, Clint had worked hard to let go of those lingering feelings - and he'd thought he had succeeded. Yet he realized right then that there had been a tiny part of him that was still angry. Now, seeing that Loki's eyes were no longer possessed by that eerie blue glow, he felt no more animosity towards Thor's little brother. He felt only pity and compassion.

Pepper took a step forward, then seemed to remember what Coulson had told her and stopped. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Stark made a strange sound. A laugh, Clint realized.

"No. We're not okay," Stark said, the laughter stopping as quickly as it had begun. "It's been ten years for us."

Clint froze.

 _Ten years_.

Those words echoed inside his brain while he stared at Stark and Loki in horror.

Coulson, who was not usually a man given to cursing, quietly swore.

Pepper put her hand to her mouth and shook her head, whispering, "How?"

"Different planets have different time zones, basically," Stark said. "We - we still don't even know what happened."

"What do you mean?" Coulson said, stepping up beside Pepper. Stark's eyes snapped to him.

"Agent," he said, sounding resigned. "And Barton. Of course."

"We're not here with SHIELD," Clint said. "Or at least, I'm not." 

"The archer," Loki murmured, and Clint met his gaze for the first time. It felt like there was a tiny zing of lightning in the air. A private acknowledgement.

"A lot has happened," Pepper told them.

"I'm sure," Stark said. "Loki and I just... came to. We were in control of ourselves again. I don't know how or why. The Mind Stone must have been destroyed. It was one of the few that Thanos doesn't have yet."

"The Mind Stone," Clint mumbled to himself. He remembered Thor talking about that particular Infinity Stone at length. Along with Loki and Stark, that Infinity Stone was one of the things that Thor had been searching for. Thor believed that if they could find and use the Mind Stone, Loki and Stark might be saved. It seemed that he'd been right. Clint suddenly regretted doubting him all those times.

At the same time, he realized that meant Thor was probably on his way to Earth.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than thunder boomed in the distance. 

"Ah shit," Clint said to no one in particular, and sprinted back outside. Clouds were gathering quickly, much more so than could have happened naturally. He huddled in the doorway as said clouds opened and a torrential downpour soaked the ground. In the distance, he could see actual lightning darting between the clouds. That could only mean one thing.

His guess had been right, then. Thor must have found and destroyed the Mind Stone somehow. And then, knowing that Loki and Tony would come to Earth if they could, Thor had chosen to come here too. 

He waited patiently for a couple minutes and was rewarded by a particularly large, jagged bolt of lightning slicing the clouds open. It struck the ground with a flash of light that made Clint's eyes smart - you would think after all this time that he'd know better than to keep watching. He rubbed at his eyes and, by the time he'd blinked all the spots away, the storm had miraculously departed. All that was left behind was a large, circular scorch mark on the ground about two hundred feet away, very wet grass, and a large man swiftly walking towards the building.

Clint went to meet him.

"Friend Clint!" Thor called out. It was a far cry from his once-exuberant greeting. As the years had passed, and there was no positive word of Loki, Thor's initial ever-present cheer had slowly faded. Some people might have called it growing up. Clint called it for what it was: a burden of sadness and guilt that no one should have had to bear.

"Hey Thor," Clint said once they were within speaking distance. "They're here."

Thor stopped short. "Truly?"

"I saw them myself. Loki and Stark both," Clint confirmed. 

Thor's reaction was much like Pepper's had been, though he didn't start crying. It was a very near thing. Clint drew nearer and watched him, wondering if it had been more than three years for Thor too. Had the time Thor had spent going from planet to planet also elongated time for him? Maybe he felt like he'd been searching for five years, or seven years - or hell, maybe for Thor it had been more like _twenty_ years. 

"I had hoped," Thor breathed when he could speak again. "Several days ago, we finally tracked the Mind Stone down again."

"And you destroyed it?" Clint said hopefully. His knees went a little weak with relief when Thor nodded. A part of him had always wondered what would happen if someone tried to brainwash him again, but now that the Stone was gone -

"Destroyed it and made sure that it could never be recreated. It's a story I would prefer not to share," said Thor quietly. There was a new shadow in his eyes, one borne of grief and loss, and so Clint did not press him.

"Then you saved them," he said instead. "Stark was just saying that he and Loki suddenly came to and had no idea what had happened. Destroying the Mind Stone set them free."

He looked up to see how Thor would take that, only to discover that Thor wasn't listening. His eyes were fastened on something over Clint's shoulder. Clint twisted around and saw that Loki and Stark and Pepper and Coulson had come outside as well.

Apparently, no one had given Thor the 'let them come to you' talk. He took off towards Loki. Clint opened his mouth - and then realized it wouldn't make a difference.

And then, watching as Thor reached them and swept both Loki and Stark up into what had to be a rib-breaking hug of epic proportions, decided that it was just as well. No one needed a hug as much as those two did.


	5. Chapter 5

Being back on Earth was weird.

Good, but weird.

Tony had forgotten what it was like to have so many eyes on him all the time. At one point in his life, he was used to that. The workshop had been his only sanctuary from all the people who wanted things from him. But then there was Thanos, and Tony got used to working in the shadows. The only person who watched him after that was Thanos – always, _always_ watching.

But now, it seemed like Clint, Coulson, and Pepper were always watching him. Like they were expecting something. Tony didn’t know what. The attention made him uncomfortable. It was too much like Thanos, and he was no longer any good at divining what someone wanted before they opened their mouth and spoke. So he usually leaned into Loki’s side and tried to ignore them. That strategy worked for about three days.

And then Rhodey came.

His progress had been slower than the others because of the army – unlike Pepper, Rhodey couldn’t just drop everything and come running. He had continued to make a very good, high-profile career for himself after Tony’s disappearance. He was now a Brigadier General, and still maintained his status as the Stark Industries liaison. He also had a fiancé now, and was scheduled to be married next year. That was all information that Tony had learned from JARVIS. 

Tony had felt oddly empty, sitting there and looking at a bunch of holograpgic news articles about his best friend. The life that Rhodey had lived over the past three (ten) years seemed so far away. Of course Rhodey’s life would have continued on. He had to. Rhodey couldn’t just stop because Tony wasn’t there anymore. Yet a little part of Tony couldn’t help feeling weird about it. He had missed so much.

So he wasn’t sure how to feel when Rhodey drove up to the mansion and jumped out of the car. It was a new car, so he must have finally given up on his old one, and he was alone, which Tony was glad to see – he had been a little worried that Rhodey might bring his fiancé along. Strangers were more than Tony could handle at the moment. As it was, this older, more mature Rhodey looked a little like a stranger.

“Tones!” Rhodey yelled, running up the walk. His arms were spread. It was something that Tony had seen a million times before, and he knew exactly what was about to happen. Had this been three (ten) years ago, Tony would have been crying out Rhodey’s name with joy and running to meet him. They would have met in a great big hug and cried right there together.

But it wasn’t three (ten) years ago.

It was now, and someone was rushing towards him at a great speed while yelling.

Something in Tony just _broke_.

He lurched backwards, panic catching his throat as a hundred memories of _pain_ spiralled through his head. It had been different with Thor, because Loki had been right beside him. When Loki was there, Tony could bear anything no matter how much it hurt. But when he was alone, he was fragile and ready to shatter at the slighest provocation and oh god, _he didn’t want to hurt anymore_ -

Warm arms closed around him, halting his instinctive attempt to run, and Tony clawed at Loki’s shirt through gasping breaths of air. Over Loki’s shoulder, he saw Thor get in between them and Rhodey. Rhodey didn’t look very happy as Thor muscled him backwards. Pepper rushed over to join them and put a hand on Rhodey’s arm, talking to him very lowly and quickly.

“You are well. That is your friend. He won’t hurt you,” Loki murmured in Tony’s ear. The words had an odd, lyrical quality to them and Tony had the distant thought that Loki probably wasn’t speaking English anymore. Languages weren’t an issue when Thanos had the Reality Stone.

Right. Tony struggled to re-orient himself, painfully aware that people were staring at him again. Or at least, they were until Thor moved closer and blocked him and Loki from view. That helped a little, and Tony was able to close his eyes. They were not with Thanos, he reminded himself. He was safe. He was with friends. They both were. No one was going to hurt them here.

“Are you well?” Thor asked.

Tony opened one eye. Thor wasn’t hovering, but he did look a little bit like a mother hen who was worried about a chick. Except in this case, he was a brother who was deeply worried about his little brother. Maybe that was why Thor’s closeness didn’t bother him. At the heart of it, Thor’s concern may have extended to Tony but it was really all about _Loki_. The only reason Thor was worried about Tony too was because somehow, Thor seemed to have an implicit understanding of his and Loki’s closeness.

Loki’s grip was tight, and Thor’s eyes were soft, and Tony thought that if he said he wasn’t they would both bundle him inside straight away. Clint would understand too. Sometimes he looked at Tony and there was nothing but a terrible understanding in his face. 

Pepper and Rhodey and maybe even Coulson, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t be quite as forgiving. That would cause trouble. Right now, only a select few people knew that Tony was back. But that was going to change. He’d looked into it a little with JARVIS’s help. Public opinion on Tony Stark was divided as it was, and the public was fickle. They would need friends they could rely on. 

And it was _Rhodey_.

Slowly, Tony pushed away from Loki and straightened up. As he did, Thor moved aside so that Tony could see what was going on. Clint and Coulson, who had been hanging back by the doors, had joined Pepper and Rhodey. Clint looked _very_ angry. Maybe that was the reason why Rhodey now had a sheepish look on his face. Clint, Tony thought, was going to be invaluable.

“Hi Rhodey,” Tony said. The nickname was stiff and unnatural. How long had it been since he’d had the luxury of saying Rhodey’s name out loud? Too long.

In the beginning, those first months under Thanos’s control, Tony had become afraid that he would someday forget Rhodey, Pepper, JARVIS, Earth. He’d repeated their names to himself constantly. But of course, he’d been locked up in his own mind. So he’d never been able to say their names, or anything, out loud. For a long time, all of this had existed only as a memory.

“Tones,” Rhodey said, his expression smoothing out into something between despair and relief. “I – sorry. I didn’t mean to rush you.”

“It’s okay,” Tony said, feeling a little guilty. He knew that Rhodey would never hurt him. He knew he shouldn’t have reacted that way. He knew he had to get used to being around people again.

It was just hard to remember.

“Can I –” Rhodey didn’t finish the sentence, but half-lifted his arms. Something raw and ragged in Tony’s chest ached at the sight of it. 

He didn’t really want Rhodey to touch him.

But he didn’t want this to be one more thing that he lost to Thanos either.

So he stepped forward and met Rhodey halfway, letting Rhodey wrap his arms around him. The contact felt strange. Restrictive. Tony hated that. He could remember how it used to feel when Rhodey hugged him: safe and comforable. He used to live for Rhodey’s hugs. And now he could barely tolerate them. The heat coming from Rhodey’s body, the smell of his cologne, the feel of his clothing – it was all so much. Too much.

Tony broke away as soon as he safely felt that he could, taking a step back to put some much-needed distance between them. Up close, Rhodey looked even older than he had from a distance. His hair was still cropped close to his head, but there was some new gray at his temples. It made him look distinguished.

“I like your hair,” Tony said shyly. 

Rhodey broke into a smile and a chuckle. “You do? You should. These grays are all thanks to you.”

Oh. Tony should have expected that, but somehow he hadn’t. Hearing it made his guilt intensity. Of course those gray hairs were from him – probably from him going missing. 

“I like your hair too. The blue is nice,” Rhodey added.

“Blue?” Tony repeated, blinking.

“Shit, I didn’t even notice that before,” Clint said, shoving his face closer to Tony’s. Tony only just managed to avoid rearing back. 

Pepper reached into her purse and took out a compact. She opened it and held it up so that the mirrored portion was in front of Tony’s face. He didn’t really want to look at it – seeing the body of a mid-twenties man when you should have been seeing a middle aged man was just _wrong_ , so he had been avoiding mirrors - but did so after seeing Pepper’s expectant expression. He carefully avoided looking at his face, instead looking at his hair. It took him a moment, but eventually he realized that the tips of his hair were dark blue. The change was subtle, since the blue was so dark that it blended in with the brown.

“Interesting,” Coulson murmured, and Tony’s eyes flicked towards him. But it was no easier to tell what Coulson was thinking now than it had been before all this occurred.

“Loki’s hair has green tips,” Thor spoke up. “Is this notable in some way?”

Clint and Pepper both looked at Loki with interest. As always, Loki’s hair was gathered back at the nape of his neck, so it was largely hidden from view. He narrowed his eyes at them as though daring them to try and come near. Wisely, they didn’t.

“No, it’s not,” Tony said with finality, moving to stand next to Loki again. Conveniently, that meant he was away from the mirror. As far as he was concerned, the blue hair was just one more thing from that damned Reality Stone. A side effect, perhaps.

“You’re right,” Rhodey said, looking like he regretted bringing it up. 

“Why don’t we go inside?” Coulson suggested. “It’s cold out here.”

Was it? Tony hadn’t noticed. Temperature changes didn’t really bother him much anymore. He watched as the others trooped into the house, but gripped Loki’s arm. Communication wasn’t necessary between them. Loki stayed where he was until everyone else, even Thor who cast a worried look back at them, were inside and out of earshot.

Then Tony said, “You can be okay with it, you know. He’s your brother.”

A muscle ticked in Loki’s jaw. “Do you know what he said when I asked why he was here?”

“What?” 

“He said that he never appreciated me until I was gone, and that he searched for me for over ten years, and now that he has me back he would defy Asgard itself to keep me safe.” Poor Loki sounded like he didn’t quite know what to do with this information. 

“Okay,” Tony said. It sounded reasonable to him.

But Loki shook his head. “That’s not _Thor_.”

That wasn’t the Thor he remembered was what he meant.

Tony sighed. “The Rhodey I remember wouldn’t have a car like that,” he said quietly, jerking his thumb to indicate the car. “The Barton I remember didn’t hold Coulson’s hand. Things have changed. A lot.”

Yet he knew that Loki knew that. It was thought of things changing _for the better_ that they struggled with.

“Perhaps,” Loki said stiffly. “It would be best if we pretended we wanted his protection for the foreseeable future.”

Loki could lie to himself, but not to Tony. Tony touched his arm again, gentler this time.

“You can want your brother, Loki. That’s not a bad thing after what we’ve been through. To have someone to protect you, me, us for once – I want that for you.”

“But he can’t,” Loki said. “And he might not. There might be – ulterior motives at play.”

“Maybe,” Tony allowed, but he thought not. No one searched for their brother for _ten years_ just to start being an arrogant asshole to said brother. It was true that Thor couldn’t protect them if Thanos came calling, but then again nothing could – and Thor would try anyway. Would it be so terrible to let him? To indulge in that protection from everything else, at least?

“So?” said Loki, and he looked at Tony like Tony held all the answers.

All Tony could say was, “Would it be so bad to let him try?”

Loki’s face crumbled. There was nothing more to say, so Tony just hugged him.


	6. Chapter 6

"Rogers knows."

Clint paused in the middle of climbing out of the shower. He really should have just stayed under the water, he thought regretfully. But there was no avoiding the truth of it now. He sighed and finished getting out, accepting the towel that Coulson handed him. He didn't need to know Coulson as well as he did to see the fresh lines of stress in Coulson's face. He'd wondered what Coulson's conversation was about; it had seemed very tense when Clint walked past earlier, but Clint hadn't been expecting this.

"How?" he asked, wrapping the towel around his waist.

"We're not sure. Potentially a leak in SHIELD," Coulson said, eyebrows drawing together in irritation. "Fury is looking into it. The point is, he knows and he wants to see Stark."

"I guess I'm not surprised," Clint said slowly. Rogers always did think pretty highly of himself, so he probably thought it was a slight against him that no one had bothered to reach out to him yet - even though Clint couldn't think of a single reason _why_ Rogers would want to see Stark. Rogers didn't even know Stark, and he'd made no secret of the fact that he didn't really want to.

"Fury called me to see what I think. Apparently Rogers is being pretty insistent. Natasha knows where this place is, so it's only a matter of time before they show up," Coulson said. 

Clint took his hand and squeezed it. "Let me talk to Stark about it," he said. "It should be his choice."

For a moment, it seemed like Coulson wanted to argue. "Fury doesn't think it's a good idea. Neither do I."

"We'll take your opinion into consideration," Clint said lightly, not surprised by this in the slightest. He had experienced a lot of this sort of reaction after he was brainwashed. People seemed to think that being brainwashed meant you lost the ability to think for yourself. Well, they were wrong. Stark and Loki had already proven that they were both every bit as intelligent now as they had been before, if not more so. Clint was going to give them all the details and let them decide for themselves.

He kissed Coulson's cheek and then ducked into the guest bedroom where they staying to quickly get dressed. Then he left the room in search of Stark and Loki. It actually didn't take long to find them out: it was sunny and warm outside, so naturally the two of them were out on the beach. Well, make that the _three_ of them, because Thor was there too. They had only been here for five days, but in the span of those five days Clint didn't think he'd ever seen Thor more than five feet away from either one of them.

Which was pretty easy, considering that Stark and Loki were never more than two feet apart. They orbited around each other in a way that seemed unconscious, like they didn't even know it was happening, but there was no way in hell anyone was getting between them. Clint had yet to figure out whether that was a trauma thing or whether it was because of something that Thanos had done.

All three of them looked up when the door swung shut behind Clint, but no one moved. He took that as a good thing and made his way down the stone steps to the beach. He'd never been much of a swimming fan, but he had to admit that sound of the ocean was nice. 

"What's up?" Stark asked when Clint grew near.

Clint decided to be blunt. "Rogers wants to see you, and he's probably going to bring along his team if he does."

Stark lowered his sunglasses to peer at Clint over them. "Rogers? Why?" He sounded somewhere between surprised and amused by this information. "We only met for about five minutes, and in that five minutes we got into a fight that ended up with us in each other's faces. Given that I hear he's been hanging out with Romanov, I doubt his opinion of me has changed much."

"It hasn't," Clint said, taking a seat on the sand. "If I had to guess, they want to see if you're a threat."

"I could be a threat if I wanted to be," Loki said idly.

"Yeah, that's the kind of thing you probably shouldn't say around them," said Clint, trying not to smile. He liked Loki. The guy was kind of an asshole, but in an amusing way.

"Are they still the Avengers?" Stark asked.

"Sort of," Clint said carefully. It wasn't really the Avengers Initiative as Coulson and Fury had once imagined it. Right now, the only members were Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, some guy named Sam Wilson, and the twins who had defected from Hydra, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Clint wouldn't have trusted a single one of them as far as he could throw them.

Stark narrowed his eyes. "Sort of?"

"It's complicated?" Clint said.

"This isn't Facebook," Stark said. "Barton, come on."

"They think that they're the Avengers, but whether or not they help or hinder a situation depends on who you ask," Clint said. He leaned forward. "Honestly, I think they suck. Rogers spends most of his time trying to hunt down this Winter Soldier. I don't know much about the Falcon, but I definitely don't trust the Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver. They were Hydra for several years before defecting. Rogers accepted them onto the team at that point, but I’ve never felt right about them."

"Really," Stark murmured.

"I've met them before," Thor spoke up. "I would agree with Clint's assessment."

"Are they dangerous?" Loki wanted to know, tensing.

Clint considered that for a moment. "I'm not sure," he said slowly. "They fought against Steve and them for a while, but then they seemed to have a change of attitude. They've been a part of Steve's team for about a year and a half now."

"I noticed you didn't mention Romanov," Stark said. He was watching Clint closely.

"Natasha and I aren't really friends anymore," Clint said stiffly. "She thought - she wasn't -" He had to catch his breath. He didn’t like thinking about her.

"She was not kind when it came to people who were brainwashed," Thor said, looking at Clint with a compassionate expression. "I am not a fan of her, and would urge both of you caution."

"Yeah, what he said," Clint mumbled, curling in on himself. He cleared his throat. "You don't have to see them if you don't want to, but I thought I'd leave the option open to you. It should be your choice."

Stark looked at him thoughtfully for a very long moment, then shrugged. "If Rogers wants to see me, that's fine. I figured our paths woud cross sooner or later."

“Okay,” Clint said. He wasn’t sure if that was the right decision, but he meant what he said to Coulson: it should be Stark’s choice. 

“They will not be a problem,” Thor said decisively. “Let them come.”

And they did.

Stark and Loki weren’t comfortable leaving the mansion yet, and Coulson and Fury thought it was best if they didn’t anyway. The instant someone caught sight of Stark, it would be all over the internet that Tony Stark had miraculously returned and that was going to come with a lot of questions. So that meant Rogers and the other Avengers had to make the trek to California to see them. Clint was sure that didn’t settle well with any of them; no doubt Rogers was thinking that was a move designed to put him on Stark’s territory.

He trailed behind Stark, Loki, and Thor as they went into the meeting room. Coulson was already there; Fury was coming with the other Avengers. Officially, this meeting was to discuss Thanos and the Infinity Stones and what they were going to do about the threat, which meant that Clint had to be there. Otherwise, he would have made himself scarce.

“Clint, over here,” Stark said.

Clint looked around, surprised.

On the side of the table closest to the door was Coulson, then an empty chair, followed by Stark, Loki, and another empty chair that wa meant to be Thor’s. Stark gestured to the chair beside him. Clint walked over and sat mere seconds before the door swung open again. 

There they were.

Rogers, Romanov, Wilson, and Maximoff twins filed into the room behind Fury. Clint wondered how they looked to Stark – to Tony’s eyes. Older? Younger? Stupider?

Clint was going with stupider.

Loki sat up a bit when the Scarlet Witch came in, looking at the girl with interest, but the Scarlet Witch didn’t so much as glance at Loki. Clint couldn’t figure out if it was because she thought she was above them all or if it was because she didn’t register Loki as a potential threat. Either way, it was like watching a fox creeping up on a rabbit that didn’t even know the fox was there.

“Tony,” Rogers said, because of course he only had eyes for one person.

“Rogers,” Tony said softly. 

“Clint,” Romanov said.

Clint didn’t look at her. He dropped his head and stared at the table, heart thudding against his ribs.

“Alright, everyone sit down,” Fury ordered. “We’re here to discuss a potential threat to the planet, not to greet each other one by one.”

“It’s not a potential threat. Thanos is coming,” said Loki.

“How do you know that?” Wilson asked.

“Because we have something he wants, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it,” Tony said. 

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have come here,” the Scarlet Witch said, sneering. Clint lifted his head to glare at her, annoyed at how callously she was treating the situation.

“He means Earth has something,” he said sharply, avoiding Romanov’s eye. 

“The Infinity Stones,” Coulson said, snapping his book shut. “That’s what we’re here to discuss. This is a preliminary meeting, and we’ll have to talk about it in stages. This is just the beginning.”

“At least some people are here to help this time,” Romanov muttered.

“What was that?” Loki said, head turning slowly towards her.

She stared back coldly. “I don’t know who Stark thinks he’s fooling, but –”

“Oh my god,” Clint said, unable to stop himself. “Seriously, Natasha? Seriously.”

Her eyes glittered. “It’s a valid point.”

“Stark and Loki have valuable input to offer us when it comes to Thanos, Natasha,” Coulson said in a steely tone, shooting Romanov a warning look. At one time, that look would’ve been enough to silence her for the better part of a day. Now, she just looked back at Coulson with an expression that could have been carved from stone.

“We could have used that valuable input all these years,” Romanov said.

“Yeah, we’ve been here protecting the Earth all this time. I don’t see why they get to come in now and suddenly start offering another perspective,” Scarlet Witch said, her voice mocking.

Clint glared at her. “Listen you little bitch –”

Tony reached out, putting a hand over Clint’s beneath the table. It was startling enough to quiet Clint instantly.

“If you’re not interested in what we have to say, that’s fine. We all have better things to do,” Tony said calmly. The gold in his eyes seemed magnified, somehow.

“The least you could do is thank us,” Rogers said.

“Thank you?” Tony said, arching an eyebrow. It was an imperious look, and Wilson and Quicksilver shifted uncomfortably under it. Only Rogers, Romanov and Scarlet Witch seemed unaffected.

“Wanda is right. We’ve been here doing your work,” Rogers said mutinously. He reminded Clint, in that moment, of a child. “Protecting Stark Industries, the planet. What we’ve done so far has worked for us, but now you want to swan back in and –”

Thor stood, and thunder boomed outside. “Have care for how you finish your sentence,” he warned.

“You know what, Thor has the right of it. This isn’t going to work,” Tony said. He stood and Loki rose with him as smoothly as though they’d rehearsed it; Clint found himself on his feet a moment later, without even having had the conscious thought that he should move.

Coulson only sat back, a weary look on his face, as Loki and Stark started for the door. Clint caught Romanov’s accusing stare as he followed, with Thor bringing up the rear. Thor shut the door behind them, and Clint heard Fury start tearing into Rogers and his crew a split second before the door fully closed.

“That was a waste of time,” Clint muttered.

“Maybe,” Tony said. He and Loki exchanged a look. There was a feeling in the air that made the hair on Clint’s arms stand up.

A feeling of _power_.

If Thanos was coming, he had _no idea_ what was going to hit him.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


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